Alexandra Lange

This is A Thrill...

Design Research, the book and the store, in T. Hard copy this weekend, with bonus profile written by me of the amazing German toy designer Renate Muller (who is so D/R). More on that later.

Pilar Viladas writes:

In their prologue, the authors characterize Design Research as ‘‘a warm, eclectic, colorful and international version of modernism, one that mixed folk art and Mies van der Rohe, Noguchi and no-name Bolivian sweaters, offering newlyweds and Nobel Prize winners one-stop shopping for tools to eat, sleep, dress, even to party in a beautiful way.’’ By the time D/R closed (Thompson had lost control of the company eight years earlier), it had attracted a fan club that included Julia Child and Jackie Kennedy, and influenced retailers like Gordon Segal, the founder of Crate & Barrel, and Rob Forbes, who founded Design Within Reach. In his foreword to Thompson and Lange’s book, Forbes said that in 2000, when he conducted a customer survey of influential design stores, Design Research came out on top — and it had been closed for 22 years.

Read the rest of One-Stop Living here. Book also covered this week by Cool Hunting, ReadyMade and Mark Lamster (who didn't know he had D/R to thank — in a roundabout way — for the very dishes from which he ate childhood dinners. Good taste starts young). Thanks all.